July 14, 1789 –
Paris was not a happy city in 1789. Paris has never been an especially happy city – especially for those who don’t speak French – but in that fateful year, it was particularly grouchy. And it wasn’t just the city; the whole country was irritable. All of France was cranky, and the other countries were like, “What?”
Finally, the queen allegedly said they should eat cake, and the nation snapped. The people rose up in protest and, it being time for the French Revolution, they stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789.
A mob of 20,000 people stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, killing its personnel and freeing all seven prisoners incarcerated therein: four forgers, an accomplice to murder, the Marquis de Sade (yes, that guy), and an insane Irishman. The warden was decapitated, and his head was carried around on a pike. Thus began the French Revolution.
It quickly became clear that the peasants were revolting. (Not that anyone ever thought they were all that attractive.) The storming of the Bastille gave way to a Reign of Terror – a meteorological cataclysm in its own right – which eventually caused Napoleon and led to both Waterloo and Able was I ere I saw Elba, all of which have been covered in previous postings and can therefore be ignored for the time being. Eventually, the French (who had always been whiners) immersed themselves in Bourbon.
The Haus of Dcaligari 